In this first person account, we learned more about what may have led to the shooting, and how the gunman chose his targets, leaving others to live.
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Kirk Bertolet has worked for the VTA for 12 years, now as a light rail signal maintainer. He was there this morning, in the office next to the break room where workers had gathered for a shift change when the gunfire erupted.
He told the I-Team, "It was just several bursts, it was series of shots, then another series of shots and another series of shots."
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Then, Bertolet heard the gunman leave the building and head for the control center. He rushed to provide first aid.
"I saw a couple people as I walked in and then I just saw a mass of bodies, and I went to check to see if anybody was alive, if I could do anything for anybody, and watch people take their last breath."
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Bertolet tells us it surprised him that the gunman was 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, a substation maintainer who ensured power flowed to the light rail.
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"I was shocked to find out who it was myself, I've had a good relationship with him, been cordial," he shared.
Bertolet said Cassidy did not fire indiscriminately, "I do know that he had a specific agenda and was targeting certain people, he walked by people, let other people live as he gunned down other people."
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He says this should not be a story about gun control, but about how VTA treats its employees, and how employees treat each other.
Bertolet told Dan Noyes, "We sometimes are brutal to one another, I know certain shops just have a certain culture about them, it's a union trade deal and it's just union hardcore blue collar workers and that's how things go."
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He believes that Cassidy snapped because of the treatment on the job. Bertolet is an Air Force veteran, and tells me VTA is a gun-free zone. He wishes he was carrying a weapon, so he could have perhaps stopped Cassidy.
Take a look at the latest stories and videos about the mass shooting at the VTA rail yard in San Jose.
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